Whistleblower says Trump used ‘the power of his office’ to solicit foreign help to discredit Joe Biden
Paul Rosenzweig, a former Whitewater prosecutor under independent counsel Kenneth Star, said the case for Trump’s impeachment is probably strengthened by a feature that Russia special counsel Robert Mueller did not have: Trump’s own words. The administration’s decision to release the summary of the president’s call may have placed Trump in a precarious position in which his words can be used against him.
“This is out of the horse’s mouth. … Typically, admission by a defendant is the best form of evidence,” said Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute. “It seems to me almost impossible not to think that this is a big problem for the president. Instead of being able to say ‘No collusion,’ he now has to say, ‘Yes collusion. Why does it matter?’
“If the Mueller investigation had revealed that President Trump had had personal conversation with (Russia President) Vladimir Putin and promised him something – assistance in Syria in exchange for dirt about Hillary Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea – everybody would’ve said that’s collusion, that’s conspiracy, that’s wrong,” Rosenzweig said. “That’s exactly what happened here.”